http://terrytate.reebok.com/watch.asp# Woops my funny link
http://terrytate.reebok.com/watch.asp# Woops my funny link got hammered. Here ya go.
http://terrytate.reebok.com/watch.asp# Woops my funny link got hammered. Here ya go.
This is really funny stuff. I love these commercials.
I decided to make a pit stop at WalMart over lunch to replace my melted lunchbox milk container. I knew it is normally a mob scene there but I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad today. Wrong. Wall to wall people. As usual I pick one of the slower checkout lines, I have a uncanny ability to do so. I am behind 3 mexican women, all obvious related. Each pays for their own stuff individually. The oldest woman of the three purchases not one, not two, not three but FOUR purses. I was trying to figure that one out for awhile, running scenarios through my head of why you would want to buy 4 purses. Hey it helped pass the time while the cashier opened all the pockets in each purse to make sure the old lady wasn’t lifting stuff.
Speaking of checkout lines. Has anyone else had any experience with those self checkout stations at Home Depot? Our one HD store recently got them. Being the computer savy person I am, of course I head right for the self checkout station when I see it on Sunday. It is quite interesting. You scan the item and then you MUST place it in a designated area on the machine. It MAKES you do this and tries to sense if you haven’t. I had the machine tell me I didn’t put the item there when I did, tell me I removed an item when I didn’t and I wound up having to have the clerk come over and clear an error. Not very self service at all. I guess if I had a simple checkout of a couple items it would have been ok. I had over 15 items, some that were quite small. Anyone else see these in other stores? I like the idea.
Puppy weekend number two. It wasn’t all that different from weekend number 1. By the end of the weekend we were stressed out and frustrated. Multiple accidents, incessant chewing, terrorizing the cats and crying when she is crated. It appears that Ali’s experiment with letting the puppy go through the night without being taken out is not working out very well. The cage has been getting progressively worse so I think she is going to have to go back to early AM dog walks. As cute as she is, it STILL doesn’t make up for all the drama, at least not at this point. I busted ass to get a floodlight in the back so we didn’t have to be eaten alive by bugs at night. Unfortunately it seems that she doesnt like going to the bathroom unless you are out there with her.
We had a VERY busy weekend. I got the pool all ready for regular swimming by putting in new filters. We totally cleared out the bedroom my mom is going to use when she comes down. I set up shelves in the garage and in the new storage shed to accomodate all the crap that was in this room. We still appear to have way too much STUFF.
On the plus side, I got to enjoy the pool a bit yesterday, we had some friends over Saturday night and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding (surprisingly good) and I got in some time with my RC plane.
I had a very scary moment on Saturday. Ali asks me if I lighted a candle. I said no, why???? I came out to the kitchen and smelled it. Something was definitely burning. Instantly I had flash backs to my Buick burning up. Oh my GOD is my house gonna burn up next? I started frantically looking around to see where it was coming from. I now see the smoke, I am really crazy now. Ah ha! It is coming from the dishwasher! We throw it open. Smoke comes billowing out. The plastic lid to my lunch kettle milk container had fallen on the heating element and melted. Crisis averted, but man did that freak me out. I will never take the smell of smoke for granted ever again.
Today is the one week puppy anniversary. It has been a difficult week but we are working through it. It is slowly geting better and I would expect it to continue. The puppy now has a name, Nicki. Nicki is either fast asleep or running around like a maniac terrorizing the cats and trying to chew whatever she can get in her mouth. Her house training is a work in progress.
Just applied for a mortgage refinance. I am hoping to do a 15 year term. My payment would initially be about 100 bucks more a month than what we pay now but I will be cutting my term in half. That means I could be mortgage free by 50. That would be nice, real nice.
I am making a concerted effort to cut down on the reality tv. There are several new ones coming on including a new bachelor. I am going to try to not get sucked in. It really becomes an inconvenience to be tied into that much tv. I’ll stick with 2 right now, just Survivor and American Idol. Don’t want to cut into puppy time. 🙂
This weekend will be a lot of work. I want to go on a shelf hanging bonanza both in the garage and in the new shed to help clear out the junk that has been cluttering the spare bedrooms.
Today the high is supposed to be around 90. It has been feeling like summer. No complaints, I’ll take it over the snow.
Whew. The PUPPY weekend. It was a weekend filled with ups and downs. Lots of crying by my wife, lots of puppy “accidents”, and much discussion about how this was all going to work. The end result is we still have the puppy. We spent another 100 bucks on puppy stuff over the weekend so that puts the total up to $300 invested so far. We have come up with work arounds for certain situations and are stilll up in the air about how to handle others. I find it next to impossible to believe that my wife would return the puppy at this point. She is already severly emotionally invested in it. There is no denying that the puppy is adorable and as good natured as you can ask for a dog to be. I give Ali credit for getting up every night at 1 or 2am to walk the dog. However, this schedule is really hard on her since she normally needs more than 8 hours of sleep to just not feel tired. I made my puppy concerns well known over the weekend but stressed the final decision is Ali’s and that I would go along with whatever she decides. It’s been quite the soap opera.
We had our shed delivered on Monday. It is fantastic and will make our house much less cluttered. As it was delivered and being set up, I realized I didn’t have any cash to tip them. They were busting ass and doing a great job so I needed to tip them. Luckily Ali had some cash so we decided to give them 30 bucks. I signed the papers and reached into my pocket to give the guy the money. He said thanks and was on his way. Later, I reached into my pocket to grab my home depot shopping list and pulled out a 20. Evidently I only wound up giving them a 10 buck tip. I felt bad cause they really were quite nice and they wound up probably thinking I was a cheap SOB. Oh well.
It was actually warm enough to go in the pool! Mid 80’s and humid! The pool is up to 78 degrees. Swimming in March, can’t beat it.
Well I have been trying to hold out on blogging this, hoping that I would be able to reverse it quickly so I could act like it didn’t happen. Doesn’t lok like it is going to be quick so I might as well lay it out. My wife works in a nursing home where the humane society brings animals through every week for the residents to interact with. A nice idea. However, yesterday I get a call from my wife saying that there was an adorable puppy that she loved and wanted to adopt. I said that is nice dear, you know we don’t need any other animals. We already have 2 cats and 2 birds that get along relatively well. After some protesting from her that was it. I got 2 more calls that morning with more begging about the dog. She wanted me to at least come over to look at it. I knew doing so would be subjecting myself to hoardes of women fawning over the puppy saying how adorable it is and how we simply must adopt it. Against my better judgement, I went over and saw the puppy. It is a cute puppy like most puppies are. However, seeing it did not suddenly make me change my mind and want to adopt it. My wife and I had a prolonged discussion about it in the parking lot. I told her I just didn’t think it was a good idea. She was very upset. The humane society lady said she would hold the dog until 2pm and if we were interested we could call. Well after more talking I left it that we were not going to get the dog. Ali was disappointed and probably a little ticked at me considering all the stuff she lets me do but still, I held my ground.
Well, as soon as I got back to the office it was still on my mind. I really hate disappointing Ali on things. Would a puppy be so bad? I did some quick research on the internet. Yea seems like a reasonable dog. So I make the fatal mistake and call her back at work, 15 minutes before the deadline. I hem and haw but tell her it is up to her and if she wants the dog it is ok. She is estatic, overwhelmed with excitement. She makes all the arrangements and the dog is back in her office by 4pm. The fun is about to begin.
Of course our gym plans for after work had to be cancelled because we had to go get “supplies” The puppy was very good natured in the car. We got to the pet store and loaded up with 100 bucks worth of food, treats, beds, crate training dvd and toys. Even though we now had the puppy in our possession, my feelings about the whole thing did not change. It just felt wrong. We get home.
Next, over to the neighbor’s to pick up their unused dog crate. They have 2 puppies of their own and are thrilled with the idea of us now having one. Ali proudly shows off our new canine. I nervously pace. It still feels all wrong. I lug the crate back home and set it up. Ali decks it out with all the accessories. The cats come around the corner to greet us and stop, paralyzed by what they see. They don’t leave the front rooms for the rest of the night. That is a problem since their litterbox and food are located close to where the dog crate is. The night is spent taking the dog out and then trying to loosely follow our normal routine. We quickly find out that our normal routine is no longer going to work. One of us needs to be watching at all times to make sure that she is not going to relieve herself on the carpet or to stop her from chewing the leather furniture and anything else she deems fair game for her teeth. We can’t both just sit back and enjoy ourselves. My allergies started to kick up as well, something I am very unaccustomed to anymore. If I had a bad feeling before, I had a very bad feeling now.
It’s bedtime. Now only one of us can be back in the bedroom at a time because we don’t want the puppy in there but someone needs to be watching it. So we rotate shower duty. Then when it is time to put her in the cage I suggest that Ali take her out one final time just in case she needs to go to the bathroom. She says she thinks she will be ok. Earlier, Ali mentioned that she had not even heard the puppy bark yet. The puppy proved she was quite the noise maker once we put her in her crate, closed the door and left the room. You would think someone broke into the house and was stabbing the dog to death. It was horrible. 1,2,3 5 times Ali goes out and tries different things to comfort the dog. None of them work. As soon as she leaves, the unignorable howling continues. By now I am pinching myself hoping this is a nightmare that I can easily wake up from. On Ali’s last trip out she was out for awhile, so I went out to see what was going on. My first step out the bedroom door goes right into a big puddle of puppy pee on the carpet. Evidently while Ali was dragging a mattress out of the spare bedroom to put on the kitchen floor, the puppy left a little love puddle. Told ya we shoulda took her out again. I told Ali that it was ridiculous to have to sleep on the kitchen floor with the dog. She insisted. I trudged back into the bedroom feeling worse than ever. I had a hell of a time falling asleep. My mind was filled with nothing but puppy problems and how this impulse decision is going to affect everything we want to do for 15 years. I eventually fell asleep somehow but then awoke 3 hours later and tossed and turned for 2 more trying to get puppy thoughts out of my head. It was the worst night of sleep I have had in years.
The alarm clock sounds off. I feel like a zombie. Double check, nope Ali is not in bed with me, I guess it isn’t a nightmare. I go out and there is Ali, awake with the puppy. The puppy slept well, Ali did not. She got to do a 4am trip outside. I can tell Ali is frazzled. She starts crying and feels dumb for doing such a thing as adopting an 8 week old puppy on a whim. I console her. She indicates that it may be best to return the puppy and just chalk it up to a mistake. Of course inside I am very happy to hear her speak these words but can’t be too excited about it. She said we could drive separately and she would take the puppy back to the shelter. That was fine with me. After we took our alternating showers (one watching puppy) and were getting ready to leave, she asked if I could come with her to return her because she was so upset. Sure thing, no problem. It soon progressed to hmmm maybe I should take her to work with me and talk to people about it, call the Humane Society and get some advice. I knew I was in trouble. I talked to her once in the morning and got the indication that the peer pressure and guilt was making her rethink her decision to return the puppy. I tried to sway her back my way with reminders of how life altering this whole endeavor is. She said she would think about it more. I talked to her a few hours later and her decision is we need to give it a fair shot and keep the puppy over the weekend to see how it goes. Again I protest and give all indications that I was not at all happy with the decision. But she said that was the only way she could feel right about it. So, we have a full weekend of puppy madness at hand. I can only hope sleep depravation, pet stain scrubbing and a few chewed up household items will be enough to bring my wife back to the side of sanity.
Whew…. I’m so tired…
Girls beat the guys again in Survivor last night. What an embarrassment. Chumps.
Mr Rogers died. As corny as he is I used to watch him faithfully as a child. I remember thinking how cool the trolley was. It took years till I realized that he controlled it. Mr McFeeley, the land of make believe, the aquarium…. I could still draw the layout of his place. It’s sad to see staples in your childhood dying off. He was a good man.
Not much going on. Been in the daily work, gym, puter/tv, sleep routine. This upcoming weekend is a 3 day weekend, however I may wind up having to work on Saturday if some equipment comes in. The shed is scheduled to arrive Monday. It will be cool to have some flexibility with where we want to store certain items.
Every week Ali has been getting pictures and updates from her brother on their new daughter (our niece) Lauren. This process has started more talk about us having children. Certainly a me too attitude is not a good reason to have a kid. However, other things I have beeen bouncing around in my head are making me think more seriously about it. Getting older really is a constant issue with me. I think parenting helps people get through that process somewhat. Your life becomes less self centered which may be a good thing in a case like mine. I don’t know. Can someone just roll back the clock? How did I ever get to the age where I need to SERIOUSLY think about if I want kids if I dont want be a senior citizen when they are teenagers?
Enough of that, lets talk about brainless entertainment! I don’t like American Idol as much this season. 2 things annoy me. Having the families right there on stage with the contestants and the new trend for the contestants to talk smack to the judges if they don’t like the critique they are given. For the contestants to act like the judges don’t know what they are talking about really is ridiculous. If the judges say they weren’t that good, guess what? They aren’t. They know they are there to be judged and if they don’t like that idea they shouldn’t go on the show. Morons.
I caught Are You Hot the other night. Somthing right up my alley in regards to my tendency to be superficial when it comes to looks. The show was ok but I was really uncomfortable with the male judges judging other men. Hearing Lorenzo Lamas saying he liked a guy’s body gave me the heebie jeebies. Overall I’d give the show a solid C+ rating. Some hot chicks on there.
It’s really hard to not have desert at night, ya know? I would like to cut back on sweets to help me lean out just a little bit more. I think overall, I eat much better than in the past but I still break down too often. It’s really hard to not grab that glass of milk and a couple oreos.
I saw a good quote the other day that went something like this, “Time is the greatest teacher of all, however it also kills it’s students.” Any gettin old quotes always hit home with me.
Happy Monday. Another enjoyable weekend. The weather was not so hot on Saturday, better on Sunday. Saturday was EXTREMELY windy. There was a tornado warning in the area.
I made 2 separate trips to Home Depot over the weekend. I saw some termites in the mulch last weekend so I am paranoid about termite infestation. However when I went to spray the bastards this week, I couldn’t find them and instead there were hoardes of fireants there. Maybe the fireants kill termites. Hope so. I bought tons of hoses and associated hardware to enable all of our planted landscape to be irrigated. I now have a timer on the water line that will water 7 different areas every other day automatically.
I have been using our new grill heavily since we got it. I have grilled steak, burgers, chicken and eggplant so far. It’s really been nice to cook outside again.
We had a TON of stuff recorded on Tivo so we caught up on a lot of it. I am offically Michael Jackson’d out. I think I saw all 4 or 5 special/shows about him. After seeing all of it my opinion is I don’t think MJ is a pedophile but he sure is strange. His lifestyle is surreal and it’s a shame what he has done to his face. I’ve had enough though.
I’m A Celebrity Get me Out of Here has made our Tivo season pass list. It is pretty entertaining. The main reason I wanted to see it was cause Stutterin John from the Stern show is on it. I also saw Are you Hot for the first time. It is very uncomfortable to have the male judges judging whether guys are hot or not. Made me squirm a bit. We also watched the Grammy’s last night (part of it) My quick observations. Bruce looks REALLY disturbing when he sings. Don’t like when they share the microphone either. Aretha Franklin was huge and appeared to be wearing a Christmas tree skirt. The tall skinny black girl with the huge fro totally butchered the award she was presenting for. I did not enjoy NSync doing the BeeGee’s tribute, sounded way wrong. The Kid Rock / Cherly Crow duet was pretty good. The award to the Gibbs brothers was touching.
Busy week at work. Lots to do.
Ryan was the winner! I scored coffee and a donut betting on him. I have to admit that everything pointed to the other guy winning. I was lucky to win.
Tonight is a reality tv smorgasbord. There is something on all 4 channels from 8-9 that we would like to see. It’s going to put my A/V recording talents to the ultimate test. 🙂 Turns out the the guy from the last Bachelor and Helene didn’t pan out. What a surprise…..
Tomorrow is Friday. Nothing major on the horizon except getting our shed in early March.
We got some exciting news. It looks like my Mom has her place sold up north, meaning she is on her way to moving down here. It will be great to have a familiar face down here with us. Unfortunately that also means a drive from PA to Florida in a moving truck again, but it will be worth the hassle.
I forgot to mention that I got my wireless camera rig up in the air on my RC planes. It makes for some interesting footage. Check it out at my RC site. The rig also caused several crashes. Getting it all balanced out on the plane is more challenging than I expected. The quality isnt superb and I need to experiment some more with camera position and flying techniques with a cam onboard. Runs on a 9V battery, pretty slick!
Did you know that a Maxim study showed that if you post your computer specifications as your signature line in a message board you are more likely to be sexually inactive? It’s true. 🙂